Remain heart centered and nonjudgmental toward the self so that you may remain heart centered and nonjudgmental toward others. Use the self to practice loving kindness and compassion. Without blame or shame, teach the self to be gentle and kind toward the self while simultaneously asking the self to take full responsibility for the life you are in. There is a delicate balance where all is acceptable and all is acquiesced to as well, where you are both responsible and without fault for life’s unfolding adventure. Learn to accept and fully love the self in order to fully accept and love another.
Remain in awe. Though the world is in chaos keep awe in sight, for it is just waiting in the wings to show you the other side of things, the answers to the puzzles of everyday life, the joy in the darkness, the changes that though subtle will produce the needed shifts. Remain in awe of life’s unfolding so that hope stays alive and love remains manifest as the energy of now that will catapult you forward and into the awesomeness of life. Indeed, remain in awe.
A mature heart understands that everything is meaningful, that everything is but energy and thus everything exists at all times. Love exists at all times. Love is infinite energy and thus there is no loss or lack of love. That which is unseen is love without form and the heart feels such love, infinite and strong. Let love be your guide, your heart your place of knowing, and infinity your place of wisdom and all will be well.
I was present when Carlos Castaneda stated: “If you truly want to love, love with a blank check.” For many years I struggled to fully understand what he meant. My assumption was, don’t hold back in your giving; be of complete service, of unlimited support.
He often spoke of the merchant mentality as dominating what humans called love. Love, as a commodity, is traded, with the expectation that one is entitled to a higher, or at least equal yield, for one’s loving investment in another.
Thus, giving a gift is traded for appreciation. To give of oneself comes with the expectation that one be equally given to now, or certainly at some future date. After all, it’s only fair. Why should I do for you if I get nothing in return? It simply isn’t worth the investment!
Carlos made reference to eden ahbez’s songwriting hit Nature Boy as a journey with love. eden refused to capitalize his assumed name, as to him the only words worth capitalizing were God and Infinity. While living outdoors with his family, under the “L” in Los Angeles, he gave Nat King Cole’s manager the song he had written, Nature Boy, which Cole subsequently recorded with overarching success.
The song ends with these lyrics: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return.” Carlos pointed out that eden later stated that the song should have ended after ‘just to love’ rather than ‘and be loved in return.’ This captures Carlos’ criteria for love clarified to its purest.
Who, of course, could deny the exhilaration of a true meeting in the mutuality of love, where love simply flows, no walls. That kind of meeting is a genuine experience of love, as it harbors no contract of entitlements. Nonetheless, it is often a fleeting experience, as need and expectation soon enter the playing field, muddying the waters.
Jan reminds me of a time when we were walking in the dark and I stated, “If you’re going to do a good deed, do it in the dark.” When I thought of this the other day, I wondered if perhaps that was what Carlos meant by a blank check—a check filled out to be cashed, but with no reference to the sender.
The merchant of love is the ego. The ego demands recognition, validation, and attention. With these filters, true love can hardly show through. Thus, the technology of the blank check, and the invitation ‘just to love,’ are valuable steps on one’s personal path of heart.
Be the love you seek. Become within that which you seek without so that you reflect back to yourself that which you wish from another. Be the loving beam of light in the darkness, the one who is the bringer and the giver, and all will be well. Contentment, love, and peace will exude from you and indeed all will be as you wish, within and without. You are the answer you seek. Everything lies within you, waiting for you to become it.
